After the Harvest

Through days like empty fields after the harvest
This ache where the heart is
Like a tree that's bare, 'neath a sky that's starless
Like something out of place
I feel all used up I feel tarnished
Like smudged eyeliner, chipped nail varnish
Like something scarcely visible garnished
With a face

Think I might be done with this final strawness
This pick your heart back up off the floorness
This less that's certainly not moreness
This bitter aftertaste
This rotten right down to the coreness
This beat your fists on the doorness
This myness this yourness
Well in any case

I know that love is bigger
Than this dumb day to day
I see its shining figure
Fighting for scraps out in the melee

Tell me I got this turned around the wrong way
Tell me I got it mixed up in my head
Feels like I'm left here standing on the runway
A fleeting thought that barely registers

So imagine gazing up
Into the great dispassionate eyes that observe us
Head slightly tilted to one side the way a bird does
Staring quizzically
At all our silly little lies, our absurd loves
Our scratching at the surface
Clowns throwing custard pies in the circus
Of our vanity

And I know that love is bigger
Than this grim day to day
I see its shining figure
Fighting for scraps out in the melee
And maybe I should know better
Than to take it personally
When the hand that wrote the love letter
Decides to write you out the story

Maybe I got this turned around the wrong way
Could be I got it mixed up in my head
Feels like I'm left here standing on the runway
A fleeting thought that barely registers

So now the moment of truth is finally upon us
Take a look in my eyes see how much I want this
As I stand here astonished
Scraping off the filth
Cutting away this stifling bodice
Underneath a brand new skin like a goddess
Words forming on my lips like a promise
To myself

I know that love is bigger
Than this dumb day to day
I watch its shining figure
Fighting for scraps out in the melee